Somali Pirates Thwart ... Climate Research?

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An unexpected casualty of Somali pirates might be climate
research, scientists now warn.

The number of
pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean off
the coast of Somalia
nearly doubled from 111 in 2008 to 217 in 2009, and the
situation remains unstable. Vessels are now recommended to stay
at least 600 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, and those
sailing in the Gulf of Aden are advised to travel through a
militarily patrolled passage.

Many of the ships that once traveled in this area carried
instruments that recorded wind and other weather conditions near
the ocean surface. The disruption in their routes has now
resulted in a giant hole — about 965,000 square miles (2.5
million square kilometers) — in the marine weather-observing
network off Somalia's coast.

"The piracy is impacting our ability to make measurements over
the ocean that have been going on for well over 100 years in a
lot of cases," said researcher Shawn Smith, a research
meteorologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

As such, there is now a critical void of data when it comes to
the Somali low-level jet, a wind pattern that is a key driver of
Indian
Ocean monsoons, researchers explained. This in turn impacts
attempts to improve
climate forecasts over the Indian subcontinent.

"The only way to address ongoing questions about climate change
and how the planet is changing due to human activity or other
impacts is to look at phenomena over 50-year timeframes or
longer," Smith told LiveScience. "Piracy is affecting our
long-term records."

The scientists detailed their findings in the July 5 issue of the
journal Eos.